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Cryo Preparation System Used in Conjunction with a New Beamline Helps to Align Protein Crystals
Quorum Technologies report on the use of their PP3000T cryo preparation system in conjunction with the new beamline at Diamond Light Source to help align protein crystals prior to X-ray macromolecular crystallography experiments.
Dr Anna Warren is a Senior Support Scientist on VMXm, a new beamline currently under development and construction at Diamond Light Source where it will be used to carry out X-ray macromolecular crystallography experiments. Diamond offers 26 separate beamlines to aid with research groups in the UK and abroad, allowing them to determine the three dimensional structure of matter, such as protein molecules, on the atomic scale.
Due to the small size of these crystals, Dr Warren is using a Jeol SEM to visualise the crystals and align them to the X-ray beam to carry out the experiments. The crystals are very fragile and prone to dehydration. This means they have to be stored, handled and studied at liquid nitrogen temperatures. This is where the Quorum PP3000T cryo-SEM preparation system has been of great use. Dr Warren takes up the story: “It has allowed us to visualise crystals less than a micron in size at cryogenic temperatures. This technique has never been used in our field in this way so we are currently carrying out a lot of research to understand the best ways of handling and preparing samples to obtain the best quality images. This would be impossible without having the Quorum preparation system and cryo-stage as the crystals would deteriorate in quality. Quorum was very helpful when we started looking at systems to purchase, especially as they have an SEM and cryo-SEM set up in Laughton. We were able to test out our samples in advance to get an understanding of whether it would work for us. Since making our purchase decision, we found that the preparation desk/slushing station have become a vital part of our sample preparation and this has been invaluable for our experiments.
“The image shown illustrates the data quality we get routinely — crystals of cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus (CPV20). The crystals shown here are in the size range 2.5 to 5 µm.”
The Quorum PP3010T and PP3000T are highly automated, easy to use, column-mounted, gas-cooled cryo preparation systems suitable for most makes and models of SEM, FE-SEM and FIB/SEM. Highly efficient cooling allows temperatures of down to 190°C to be routinely achieved. The systems include facilities for rapid freezing, cold fracturing, controlled sublimation and high resolution sputter coating. The typical process time for samples is between five and ten minutes.
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Report on High Temperature Stage Use for Research on the Properties of 2D Materials
Market leaders in temperature controlled microscopy, Linkam Scientific Instruments, report on the use of their high temperature TS1500 stage for research into the properties of 2D materials.
Professor Yong Zhang is the Bissell Distinguished Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC). He leads a group which studies how an epitaxial or supporting substrate can impact the material properties of a 2D material that is often presumed to have weak bonding with the substrate. In addition, they investigate a thermal activation process that requires high temperature capability. In turn, a high temperature experimental set up allows the study of thermal stability under various conditions.
(MoS2 ), tungsten disulphide (WS2 publications.
Professor Zhang has noted several key findings from this research. He said: “We have made some important findings which are common among 2D materials. Firstly, we saw that film properties are sensitive to not only the substrate type (e.g. SiO2
vs. sapphire) but also the bonding situation
(e.g. epitaxially grown vs. transferred). Second, we found that high temperature studies reveal how film morphology impacts the material properties and how morphology changes with heating. We also saw that the sensitivity of the substrate influence on the film thickness depends on the material property of interest. For instance, the effect of the substrate remains significant for thermal conductivity of the film even the film is already relatively thick, but is much less significant for electronic properties.”
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Since choosing the Linkam TS1500 high temperature stage for their work, the group has used the stage multiple times to study different material systems with the goals of understanding the effects of substrate on 2D materials to reveal the intrinsic properties of the materials and control and modify them with substrate engineering. These include black phosphorus, monolayer molybdenum disulphide ) and graphene. Other materials, such as copper-zinc-tin selenide (CZTSe), a new solar cell material, have resulted in
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